Two years earlier, he was successful in campaigning to keep the role of elected mayor in the town.

In 2019, he's finally taken the top job.

Born and raised in Acklam, Mr Preston moved to the capital to earn his fortune - working as an international financier, before returning home to set up a number of charity and business ventures.

The 52-year-old runs the successful property business Green Lane Capital with his brother.

It restored the former Kirby College in Middlesbrough , converting it into apartments, and turned the 19th-century Middlesbrough building previously known as the Cleveland Club into office accommodation called Boho Four Gibson House.

Last year, he refurbished office space in Stockton and relaunched it as Level Q.

Andy Preston (Image: Ian Cooper / Teesside Live)

But he's probably best known for his charity ventures - leading the CEO Sleepout charity, which raises money for the homeless, and his work with the Teesside Philanthropic Foundation which has raised huge amounts of money for locals.

Through that, he has launched the Fork in the Road restaurant on Linthorpe Road.

Not just popular with diners, it was set up to provide jobs and training to the most vulnerable - the homeless, those leaving prison, or those with addictions.

Ahead of Mr Preston's narrow defeat in 2015, he became embroiled in controversy when it was revealed he did not live at the Acklam address he'd put on his nomination papers - which was his mum's family home.

A victorious Andy Preston (Image: Ian Cooper)

He called the allegations "groundless" and said the fact he lived near Northallerton was a matter of public record, calling it more evidence of a "low and dirty fight" in a campaign to discredit and intimidate him.

He told Teesside Live last year that he would "almost certainly not stand" in the election due to "personal attacks".